Empty Blog Of Nothing, Yo: Delta Spirit

Lollapalooza was rainy.
and Hot.
and Dusty.
and Crowded.
and it frequently reeked of marijuana.

It was also quite a lot of fun. The list of bands I saw perform at least 1 song is as follows, in order:
Frances England, The Gaslight Anthem, Heartless Bastards, Hollywood Holt, Fleet Foxes, The Decemberists, Andrew Bird, Kings of Leon, Depeche Mode, Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, Delta Spirit, Moneypenny, Miike Snow, Ida Maria, Los Campesinos!, Joe Pug, Perry Farrell, Arctic Monkeys, Santigold, TV on the Radio, Ben Harper and Relentless7, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Neko Case, Cold War Kids, Deerhunter, MSTRKRFT, The Killers.

None of them were bad. A few of them were great, and a handful were welcome surprises. Thanks to all of the friends I ran into who also tolerated my frequently late text messages. A new iLike playlist based on Lolla has been posted on the right, brief recaps on some of my favorites are below, and a few more pictures from the weekend are further down.

The Gaslight Anthem, a band I'd heard of but never listened to, was my first real set to catch for the weekend. It was raining and the crowd didn't seem to mind, knowing the two days to follow would be excruciatingly hot. The band is from New Jersey, they sing working class rock n' roll in the style of Springsteen, and the lead singer was wearing a Social Distortion t-shirt. If you don't think this is right up my alley you don't know me very well.

Hollywood Holt perfromed just about the same set I saw for $5 at Wicker Park Fest. He still had the EXPLOSION sound effects, he uses mostly the same lines in between tracks, and his track about not giving a crap what your friends say about your outfit is still hilarious. This dude pictured was having a one-man dance party.

I probably have 2 or 3 Delta Spirit tracks from either My Old Kentucky Blog or Gorilla vs Bear or some place my brother linked me to. People would say they're somewhat Dylanesque, venturing into alt-country. The lead singer called his brother from the stage, who was getting married that day, and had the crowd wish him well. The band's performance in the heat on Saturday was so geniunely earnest and full of energy that I bought their album on Monday. The back cover photo on the album is dated from the early 70's and shows a middle-aged couple playing chinese checkers in the bathtub.

Los Campesinos! are a bunch of exuberant kids from across the pond who bang on their instruments and everything else within reach, belting out songs of musical chaos and disorganization that somehow end up sounding terrific. This band reminds me of a litter of rambunctious puppies playing around together until they exhaust themselves. I picture the band going back to their tour bus after each show and curling up into a pile for naptime. That analogy is terrible and does them no justice.

I love the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and everything they've recorded. Thanks to a little help from Jack Daniels, there was probably no one in the audience who enjoyed their Saturday evening headlining set more than my friends Ben, Verdo and I.

While Neko Case sounded great, and the Killers were better than I thought they'd be, my Sunday faves were both Deerhunter and MSTRKRFT (only because I was at the Sox game and missed Ra Ra Riot and their beautiful cellist). I'd never gotten into Deerhunter, having seen them once before but from a distance. This time I was much closer to the stage and finally understood just what it is that makes them so beloved by the "mybandsarebetterthanyourbands" crowd. I'll be paying more attention to their recorded output.